"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
-- Sinclair Lewis

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Another NRA Victory-- This One In Orlando

>

A gay Zionist friend in Florida, who spends a lot of time doing drugs and listening to Hate Talk Radio, sent me this note earlier: "I went to read your story about the Orlando shooting, are you going to post one? Do you see these Muslims should not be protected by the left? They will kill you all, they have been hiding behind the left to further their agenda, but in the end they are worse than the most far right Americans." Even before that, I got an e-mail from Roland saying, simply, "This is what Trump has been waiting for."I'm going to assume that everyone who reads this post already knows the available gruesome facts about the largest mass shooting in U.S. history and the largest attack on the U.S. since 9/11, which is why I started with President Obama's response in the video above. And, indeed, Trump did pounce-- demanding President Obama resign and trying to blame the terrorism not just on all Muslims and all immingrants-- though the shooter was born in the U.S.A.-- but on Hillary Clinton as well. That's what Donald Trump is. (The imam of the sexually repressed, unhinged right-wing shooter, by the way, supports Trump for president.) Here's part of the statement by the pervert who wants to be president of the United States:

In his remarks today, President Obama disgracefully refused to even say the words 'Radical Islam'. For that reason alone, he should step down. If Hillary Clinton, after this attack, still cannot say the two words 'Radical Islam' she should get out of this race for the Presidency.

If we do not get tough and smart real fast, we are not going to have a country anymore. Because our leaders are weak, I said this was going to happen-- and it is only going to get worse. I am trying to save lives and prevent the next terrorist attack. We can't afford to be politically correct anymore.The terrorist, Omar Mir Saddique Mateen, is the son of an immigrant from Afghanistan who openly published his support for the Afghanistani Taliban and even tried to run for President of Afghanistan. According to Pew, 99% of people in Afghanistan support oppressive Sharia Law.We admit more than 100,000 lifetime migrants from the Middle East each year. Since 9/11, hundreds of migrants and their children have been implicated in terrorism in the United States.

Hillary Clinton wants to dramatically increase admissions from the Middle East, bringing in many hundreds of thousands during a first term-- and we will have no way to screen them, pay for them, or prevent the second generation from radicalizing.We need to protect all Americans, of all backgrounds and all beliefs, from Radical Islamic Terrorism-- which has no place in an open and tolerant society. Radical Islam advocates hate for women, gays, Jews, Christians and all Americans. I am going to be a President for all Americans, and I am going to protect and defend all Americans. We are going to make America safe again and great again for everyone.

Perhaps Trump and Trumpists were enraged by President Obama saying "We will not give in to fear or turn against each other. Instead, we will stand united, as Americans, to protect our people, and defend our nation, and to take action against those who threaten us." That always enrages opportunists, racists, haters like Trump.You probably also know-- as I reminded my Hate Talk Radio-consuming friend in Florida-- about the man arrested in Santa Monica early this morning on his way to the gay pride event in West Hollywood with a car filled with assault weapons. James Wesley Howell was born in Indiana, not Afghanistan.Bao Nguyen, mayor of Garden Grove, just south of where Howell was caught, was brough to America as an infant from Vietnam and is currently running for Congress. He is openly gay and you can probably guess his sadness and horror at what occurred in Orlando. "As a gay man myself, I am especially disturbed by this horrific act of violence against my LGBT brothers and sisters. I condemn this barbaric shooting. Don't let anyone tell you that this twisted individual truly represents any faith community. At times like these, it's more important to hold our loved ones close, have compassion, and show the world that we stand together against hate, not divided against each other. My deepest condolences to the families of those killed. It's long past due for us as a nation to look inward and get serious about addressing the causes of mass violence in this country."Similarly Congressman Jerry Nadler, who represents a New York City district with a huge gay population and a huge immigrant population and a huge Jewish population, noted that “From what we know at this time, this tragedy seems to be both a terrorist attack and a hate crime directed against the LGBT community. It is also clear that far fewer people would have been killed or wounded if the attacker had not had access to a deadly assault weapon. Once again, the necessity of controlling access to military-style assault weapons, whose only purpose is to kill large numbers of people as quickly and easily as possible, is made tragically clear. We must pass legislation that I have long supported to re-institute the assault weapon ban, and I hope Congress will finally take the action needed. Furthermore, we must continue to support efforts to destroy ISIS and other terrorist organizations which threaten America and our allies at home, and abroad. On the same day as the horrific shootings in Orlando, a suspect was taken into custody in California targeting the Los Angeles Pride festival, with assault weapons and explosives found in his car. This demonstrates the importance of hate crime legislation, which we worked hard to pass into federal law to make it easier to investigate and prosecute such crimes. We must continue to take action to crack down on hate crimes against the LGBT community, whether affiliated with terror groups like ISIS or the actions of an individual filled with hatred and bigotry."

Let me remind people of a few facts. First of all, Republicans have consistently rejected proposals to prevent the sale of assault weapons regardless of how many massacres and murdres take place-- guns solely meant to murder large numbers of people rapidly. And Republicans-- with a few conservative Democratic allies-- have refused to pass legislation that would ban the sale of weapons to people exactly like Omar Mir Saddique Mateen. Last time a proposal to ban sales to suspected terrorists came up in the Senate 45 senators voted for the bill and 54-- all Republicans plus EMILY's List right-wing Democrat Heidi Heitkamp (ND)-- voted against it, as the NRA demanded they do. Like Trump, all the Republican leaders opposed the bill and all 4 Republican senators running for president at the time-- Cruz, Rubio, Graham and Rand Paul-- voted against it. Corrupt consevatives in the House killed the same legislation-- proposed by Nita Lowey-- in the Appropriations Committee by a 19-29 vote.Not all my friends are like the Hate Talk Radio consumer in Florida, of course. Another one had a more thoughtful approach. Her e-mail asked, "What, exactly, is the difference between the hatred spewed by radical Islamists and that by Christian fundamentalists in the United States? How can any less responsibility be laid at the feet of the U.S. politicians and their supporters for violence and terror when they espouse the same forms of hatred and marginalization as those they blame for that terror? Why are we so quick to connect the lone gunman in Miami with Islam and so unwilling to connect the “lone wolves” like Robert Dear, Angie Dillard, and Scott Roeder with the Christian right, or to hold young white star athletes accountable for the violence they perpetrate on women? Why are we so loathe to talk about rational limits on an AK-47 assault rifle, a weapon of war, when mass murders have become routine?As you no doubt know by now that ATF confirmed earlier today that the Orlando murdrered bought two weapons within the last week, having previously been investigated twice by the FBI for possible terrorism charges. He legally purchased the weapons with no restrictions whatsoever. Thanks, Paul Ryan and the GOP/NRA.I want to share part of a statement from People for the American Way president Michael Keegan issued right after the mass shooting:"[O]ur sympathies are not enough. This tragedy, the worst mass shooting in American history, is the result of a toxic brew of intolerance and easy access to firearms. Today is a heartbreaking reminder that despite decades of progress, anti-LGBT hatred and violence is still a deadly reality, and it’s crucial that we recommit ourselves to challenging bigotry in all its forms. It’s a reminder, too, that a nation awash in guns isn’t inevitable. It’s the result of policy choices driven by pro-gun extremists and enabled by politicians who refuse to stand up to them. Our elected leaders could take sensible steps to keep weapons of war away from those who would use them to murder innocent people. They’ve simple chosen not to. As we mourn the victims of this horrible tragedy, it would be inexcusable to ignore the steps we can take to prevent the next one."

#NeverTrump-- as they work to create the next, less psychotic model

As one angry, exasperated Democratic member of Congress put it tonight, "I will not attend one more 'Moment of Silence' on the Floor. Our silence does not honor the victims, it mocks them."

UPDATE From Alan Grayson (D-Orlando):Today I call on my colleagues in the House and Senate, Democrats and Republicans, to ban assault rifles permanently.Yesterday in Orlando, one man, armed with one assault rifle, caused so much carnage in a few short minutes that he killed 49 people, and 53 others were injured. It was the worst mass shooting in the history of our country.The killer couldn’t have committed this mass murder with a knife, or a pistol. He had an assault rifle, and he used it as a weapon of mass destruction. It was the same weapon as the one used in the Sandy Hook massacre. A weapon like that makes it far too easy to kill many people, very quickly.Until last summer, virtually any would-be killer could have bought one at Walmart. Then the company, the largest seller of guns in America, decided to sell militarized weapons of war to civilians no longer.It’s too late to save the 49 innocent people who died in Orlando yesterday, but it’s not too late to save countless other lives-- if we act now.

15 Comments:

I am not a right winger, just a libertarian more than anything else, and independent. I find all sides to be full of shit from the left to the right and I call out hypocrisy when I see it.

I'm not a trump supporter either, I just don't see how stricter gun laws would stop this. Look at the Paris massacre, and they have some of the toughest gun laws in the world. They didn't even use guns on 9/11, when the uncivilized barbarians want to kill people in mass numbers, they will use whatever weapons at their disposal.

They can crash a truck filled with fuel into a building. Humans can be quite destructive when the desire to live is removed and replaced with the wish to die and the quest to bring as many others with them as possible.

There was once a time when guns did not exist, humans still killed each other rather well. The Jews of Europe were disarmed and eventually exterminated, the Jews of Israel are armed and have yet to be killed off, in fact, they thrive.

If you meet them and talk to them, they aren't right wingers, they are very liberal people. They are warriors because that is how they are able to live, I'm not stupid. I understand that a world without weapons seems like a better place. However, history shows us that it often leads to the few having the power to kill the many. When one day a madman rises to power, there is nothing to stop him.

If a Hitler rose up in the USA and sent the military into the heartlands of America. He may kill them off, but it wouldn't be easy and likely would end with his forces being to weakened to wage war anywhere else or do much else. I'm not gun nut, but realistic..

I believe the majority of people are good and that evil cannot prevail against the majority if the majority is armed. If that shooter didn't have guns, he could have brought a bag of bombs and thrown it in the club and killed just as many people.

130 people were killed in the Paris massacres, to date the most heavily armed nation's worst mass killing was only 50 people. Yet in all these many years since the founding of the USA, the largest mass killing occurred after Islamist terrorism began.

So why claim that gun laws could have somehow prevented this when almost 3x the amount of people were killed in Paris which has the toughest gun laws. The similarity between the two events that they were both motivated and carried out by Islamist terrorism.

"Her e-mail asked, "What, exactly, is the difference between the hatred spewed by radical Islamists and that by Christian fundamentalists in the United States?"

(My reply)The Islamists want to kill all gays, the right wing Christians just want to take away any gay rights, hate them even. Huge difference

" How can any less responsibility be laid at the feet of the U.S. politicians and their supporters for violence and terror when they espouse the same forms of hatred and marginalization as those they blame for that terror? Why are we so quick to connect the lone gunman in Miami with Islam"

(My reply)Because ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack!

"and so unwilling to connect the “lone wolves” like Robert Dear, Angie Dillard, and Scott Roeder with the Christian right,"

(My reply)No right wing Christian movement publicly took credit for their crimes I don't believe. There is no giant Christian movement taking over countries and massacring innocent people while simultaneously remotely executing massacres via a religious death cult like Islamists are doing. Now that they have attacked and killed 50 gays, and Isis publicly took credit for the professionally executed attack. We what? We blame gun laws and talk about "lone wolf attacks?" Are you kidding me? This wasn't a "lone wolf attack." Even the FBI said it was professionally coordinated and executed. This is an Islamist death cult military with control of countries remotely detonating an attacks in the USA. Resulting with the largest massacre in us history, and you call it "lone wolf," and blame gun laws? No offense, but I respectfully disagree and I'm sure you are a nice person and very smart and mean well.

"or to hold young white star athletes accountable for the violence they perpetrate on women? Why are we so loathe to talk about rational limits on an AK-47 assault rifle, a weapon of war, when mass murders have become routine?"

(My reply)Paris has very strict gun laws, and that didn't stop a massacre from occuring on their soil far worse than what happened in Orlando. If you take away their guns, they will use box cutters and crash planes into buildings. Or send a mob with knifes and stab and kill people like in Israel. They will get guns in one way or another like they did Paris.

Also I want to add that these terrorists were able to roam freely in Paris killing people left and right. In the USA, they would have faced counter fire from armed security and police and civilians. So in the USA all they could do was enter a gay club with gay guys who tend not to carry weapons. That's all he could do, as if he had gone to a Latin straight club, he would have faced gangs who were armed and police who were armed and security who were armed, then what would this have been? Gang violence at most, the reason the massacre happened in a gay club is because gays don't tend to pack heat when they go out and party for the night , sorry to say. I'll tell you guys what, from now on I'm willing to bet that gays will start carrying weapons to night clubs, at least some will, and ask yourselves why that is.. I'm just calling it like I see it, I'm not promoting any agenda here. I was named in the article and Howie is a great man and good friend, so I use this as a license to rant on lol.

A gun cannot kill your antiquated arguments about guns don't kill.Yes they do

And since my daughter sat next to a bag that contained an AK 47 (used an hour later by the owner to commit suicide in front of the principals office at her HS 10 years ago) ..I ask you this question? Why would anyone have an AK 47? Or an AK 15 ??????PS you think the NRA gives a shit about any of this except selling more weapons ?

Ok Libertarian, let's discuss. First of all, re Paris. It was two incidents. Two terrible ones. But guess what? You are 1900% more likely to get killed with a gun i Paris, TX than Paris, France. Doesn't make a difference? It makes all the difference in the world. That is why 30 other high income countries similar to us have these things happen ALMOST NEVER. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/todd-r-miller/which-is-safer-paris-fran_b_8648980.html

Sure, people can make explosives. So why don't we just give everyone a tank then? How about should launched rockets? You see where this silliness ends up. I'll tell you where: Somalia. Gun laws work quite well in Canada, France, England, Australia, Japan, Sweden, Spain, Austria, Agentina, Israel, Germany, The Netherlands, Greece, South Korea...shoudl I go on? So why is it something that works eeyrwehre else can't work here? Here is the "conservative" former leader on Australia, on what happened after their Port Arthur Massacre (hint, murders and suicides plummeted, and they went from one mass shooting a year to NONE since they passed these laws in 1996): http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/17/opinion/australia-banned-assault-weapons-america-can-too.html?_r=0

Ok, now let's go the jews argument. Yeah, the Soviet Union couldn't defeat the Nazis alone, but Jews with pistols in Warsaw ghettoes would have? Do you honestly believe this? In Saddam's Iraq, every man was reuiqred to have a gun. How did that work out for preventing tyranny? In Yemen, they have the second largest # of guns per person after the US. How is that working out? If our government wants to drone your ass or smart bomb your ass your assault weapon will do no good. It is only good for killing civilians and cops. That is it.

Stop with the fantasies, please. We are a modern industrial democracy. There is no place for guns in the streets--particularly assault weapons that cut children at Sandy Hook to shreds. We are an outlier when it comes to gun violence in the modern world, and there is a reason why. Give it up.

Cliff, you are attempting to change the discussion from Islamist massacres to gun laws. I have successfully illustrated that Islamists can get guns through Paris (which has the toughest gun laws). This was a coordinated military assault by Isis. Isis has claimed responsibility, the Obama administration has called it a "terror attack," and the fbi has stated that this shooter was "well trained" and that the attack was coordinated and professional.

Had the Jews been armed in nazi Germany, it would have severely weakened the nazi military. They would have been fighting against people much like the Israeli soldiers or perhaps more accurately against gorilla warfare.

It would have weakened the nazi war machine and perhaps even stopped the massacre of Jews. It was Russia which did not defeat the Germans, but severely weakened them so they could be defeated.

If the military in the us was overrun by a mad Man, they would have to send in ground forces. The "smart bomb" argument has been disproven since no one seems to be able to defeat Isis with smart bombs. It required ground forces, and in so doing, the military would be severely weakened if not even defeated.

Hey if you are against the second amendment, that's fine, but I support it, I believe history illustrates the dangers of an unarmed populace.

Using Saddam Hussein as an argument is a false dichotomy. The country was thriving, the people were happy, this is how they lived, it wasn't a free democracy which overnight was taken by a brutal dictator. In such a scenario, there would be no reason for the people to fight back, it wasn't a free and open democracy.

You leave out the fundamental argument and point, that these are terror attacks. It is not about gun laws, and eventually they will have rockets like Hamas does. As for Israel, they are all armed, and terrorists who do penetrate their wall (which has stopped suicide bombers almost 100%. If they make it past their security, they face an armed public. Which is what happened with the recent terror attack in Israel, and he was shot dead. In Paris however, the terrorists reached an unarmed public and were able to kill 3x as many people as our largest massacre of only 50 people (which is not to take from the number, but to show it is much less than the Paris attacks).

So let's say assault weapons were banned, in your fantasy scenario. What would have stopped the Isis fighter from reproducing the same incident that occurred in Paris and obtaining weapons anyway, and still killing even more people as no one would be armed who would stop him?

You are diverting the argument from terrorism to gun laws. There were no guns used in 9/11 and over 3000 people were killed. When one cares not about death, when one seeks it out, when one has an army behind him. It is not surprising what ways one man can massacre lots of others. So live in your fantasy world about gun laws, I wonder if gays will start arming themselves and what they will think about your tougher gun laws sales pitch. Or how about those killed in Paris, I wonder how many of the survivors which they had had guns.

Had just 1 or 2 or 3 people been armed in the Pulse night club, they could have fought back and killed the terrorist. You are trying to change the discussion from an Isis coordinated terror attacking, to gun laws. We already have gun laws and 3 or 4 or 5 terrorist could show up with hunting guns and kill even more people. I just don't see what's to stop them from recreating Paris. This wasn't a "lone wolf" attack.

Dear anonymous, I chose this blog because I was mentioned, and you act as if I committed a crime. What happened to the freedom of speech and sharing of ideas? Is your world one where dissent is not allowed? I have spoken to many people in my life with many political views. Why is it that the radicals (no matter what they believe) refuse to listen to any other view point? Here I am reading other views and responding, I'll never understand that other than it is a sign of a true radical. I believe we should all share ideas and opinions and perspectives. No one person knows everything, and no one person is always right. You only see me as a right winger as I differ from your interpretations of this story. Right wingers see me as a left wing liberal when I comment on their stories as well. I enjoy reading comments below all stories, if they are always one sided, what's the point in reading them? What is wrong with healthy debate? I know, I'm "stupid and don't know anything," that's what the right wingers say. If what I say has no merit, then refute it with logic and facts rather than ad hominem attacks. I will respect logic and facts, but ad hominem attacks tell me you are not interested in any other views and can't argue your own, or are unwilling. I find both of the latter to be sad in a country founded on the freedom of expression. Then again, in universities, students run for their "safe spaces," when they hear offensive ideas, I suppose that's the world we are now living in... Sad, I live in hope that ideas and opinions will no longer be scary or offensive, but challenged so that all peoples can learn or draw their own opinion. Telling me not to post here is filtering ideas and free speech, it is not as if I post on every article. I read all news, how many blogs do you read with different views than your own? I read as many as I can find.

I also consider the writer of this blog to be a good friend of many years and a brilliant man. I agree with most of what he says, i agree with this blog often, the one time I don't, I comment and am called a "right winger."

Lol, btw, I just wanted to add that the guns used in the Paris massacre were all assault rifles like the ones used in Orlando. Yet they somehow made it into Paris where 3x the amount of people were slaughtered. My argument is that I don't see how trying to pass tougher gun laws would prevent this when the root cause (like Paris) is terrorism. It didn't stop them in Paris.

I want to add that I heard on an underground show tonight that the Muslim shooter was cruising gay sites. He had ties to the us government and there was talk of a second shooter by some witnesses. Including a lady who said they had helicopters searching for someone else, possible false flag. I heard it on the Clyde Lewis show, he is very under ground. Google the facts, I am not sure I agree with him, but just posting what I heard.

We are never going to get an answer to this question, but how many were killed by the police taking down this criminal? The audio of the final assault tells me that many victims belong to the cops shooting at anything that looked human.

Adam Fox I think you make incredibly valid points. Particularly when you point to the Paris terrorist attacks. Today there was an attack in Paris (using knifes) but the French are so concerned about the threats made and the upcoming E.U. Football tournament that they are letting their police force take their guns home with them.